The corona virus has thrown the spotlight on the weakness of our political, economic and social institutions. It has hit every community, but especially communities of color. The hardest hit are Native Americans and Black Americans. For these groups the official government deprivation of freedom, health and wealth has been devastating and lasted through generations. Now, in the midst of the pandemic, these same communities are suffering the overwhelming brunt of the health and economic devastation of COVID-19.
The ill-gotten gains from enslavement and appropriated lands built the foundation of today’s economic system and the wealth of all Americans. The question of reparations to Native Americans has been addressed by Congress in the past. The results were unsatisfactory to all concerned and reopening that issue would be appropriate. Here we primarily focus on the question of reparations for Black Americans.
House Resolution 40 sets out a course of action for setting up a national Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans. In the language of the Resolution, “The commission shall examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies. Among other requirements, the commission shall identify (1) the role of federal and state governments in supporting the institution of slavery, (2) forms of discrimination in the public and private sectors against freed slaves and their descendants, and (3) lingering negative effects of slavery on living African-Americans and society.”
A variety of objections to addressing reparations have been made including: we cannot address and pay for every injustice in our history; the people owed reparations are long dead, and the amount of money owed will bankrupt the US. We address each briefly.
“The world is unfair and we cannot cure every wrong.”
True enough, there have been many injustices perpetrated in the course of our history. But the institution of slavery and the theft of Native lands are the most egregious of these, while at the same time laying the very foundations of the nation and economy. The labor taken from Black Americans (and the land stolen from Native Americans) are the basis of American farming, banking and industry. This theft is the root cause of the conditions in which many Black descendants live.
“The people to whom reparations are owed are long dead.”
This argument completely ignores the ongoing nature of the economic injustice that slavery wrote into the story of America. Moreover, while slavery ended in 1865, discrimination continued when it ended and continues today. Generations of Black Americans have had to live and work under the Black Codes, through the Jim Crow era, constrained by segregation and legal economic discrimination through the 1960s. Black soldiers were left out of the benefits of the GI Bill after WW II and “redlining” kept Black Americans from home ownership in many communities. Importantly, wealth is handed down through the generations and the consequences of the denial of opportunities to accrue wealth are also inherited. Today a Black family headed by a professional with a college degree has less wealth than a similar white family with only a high school education. Equally important, trauma is also intergenerational adding to the burden carried by descendants of enslavement.
“We can’t afford to pay what is owed.”
This argument is meant to end the conversation before it even begins. Regardless of how or what we choose to calculate as financial repair, we need a public, official and comprehensive airing of the full history of the harm done by enslavement. We are long past due for an American Truth and Reconciliation process and an overturning of the misrepresentations of our history perpetuated in schools and the general culture. As to the cost of repairing the harm, it is worth noting that the last three years have shown us that the Federal government is more than willing and able to pay trillions of dollars (in tax breaks and economic stimulus) when it chooses.
Reparations are a radical idea only in the sense that they might honestly and comprehensively address the root of American inequality.
Call To Action
Write your Congressperson and Senators and tell them you support House Resolution 40 to establish a “Commission to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African-Americans.”
Read
Ta-Nehisi Coates “The Case for Reparations”, The Atlantic June 2014, and as a chapter in We Were Eight Years in Power.
Nikole Hannah-Jones “It is Time For Reparations”. New York Times, June 24, 2020.